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TabGroupCitizens have long used their common-law property rights to protect their environment against corporate and government polluters. The government's response: to disempower the populace by authorizing pollution that property rights would have prevented, and to even pass laws overriding court decisions against polluters – all on the grounds that a greater, so-called national interest required the polluting activities.
♦ With the publication of Greener Pastures and Property Rights in the Defence of Nature, with chapters about property rights in 13 other books, with articles in the popular press, and with presentations to conferences and classrooms in five countries, Environment Probe has worked tirelessly to restore property rights, so that individuals and communities will become empowered with means to protect the environment.
♦ Every two years, Environment Probe helps organize an international conference linking property rights, economics, and the environment. The conference, held in France, brings together activists, scholars, and governments to explore the role of property rights and economic instruments in protecting land, air, water, marine life, and other resources. The 2010 conference will focus on protecting biodiversity.
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This important book builds on earlier work by the same author, Property Rights in the Defence of Nature (1995), which made a strong case that customary common law in the United Kingdom, the United States and Canada has been an effective means of pollution control, where and when it has been allowed to work. As that earlier book showed, however, legislative law, often drawn up on the premise that it would promote economic progress or the public good, has often weakened these customary common law remedies to air and water pollution.
This new book applies the same analytical lens to the narrower issue of air and water pollution originating on farms. read more »
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The environment is one of the major concerns of our day, perhaps overwhelmed recently by the economic tsunami that is sweeping the globe, but not an issue that will go away or be easily solved. read more »
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Much of the Canadian environmental movement's efforts to fight climate change have been directed towards advocating for increased government intervention. But what about existing regulatory barriers that hamper the market’s own ability to address environmental problems? Before enacting new legislation to deal with environmental ills, it is worthwhile to consider removing existing laws that block financial incentives for green initiatives. In Canada, government regulation has held back the development and usage of environmentally friendly alternatives like electric cars and hybrid taxis. read more »
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Danielle Smith, campaign director of the Alberta Property Rights Initiative, interviews Elizabeth Brubaker on the use of common-law property rights to protect the environment. read more »
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Tom Adams, Elizabeth Brubaker and Lawrence Solomon are three leading intellectuals in an umbrella organization – Energy Probe Research Foundation (EPRF) – that is influencing the views of a new generation of policymakers about a host of interrelated issues that include environmental protection, energy, urban planning and foreign aid. These folks can't be dismissed as politically left or right of centre. read more »
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I am an environmentalist, which is to say that I enjoy and value nature and believe it is important to identify and address serious pollution problems. But I am not a typical environmentalist. The assumptions I make about both the causes of environmental degradation and its solutions are fundamentally different from those of what I will call the standard environmentalist model. read more »
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On the surface, a recent B.C. court case seemed to deny a legal right to clean water. But in fact, since the 19th century, common law has given the users of water downstream from a polluter a clear right to seek redress through the courts. read more »
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It appears that by opening the waters to the public, Opération Déclubage has caused, at least partly, the general decline in the quality of fishing in the province of Québec. This paper is an attempt to demonstrate that leaving the waters to the care of unaccountable managers leads to a decline in fish stocks, and that a clear system of private property rights is better suited to ensuring resource conservation – not just in Quebec but everywhere the opportunity exists for private river stewards to improve fisheries management. read more »
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While reporting on the trial of Wiebo Ludwig and Richard Boonstra for the National Post, Christie Blatchford managed unintentionally to articulate the real issue in the subterfuge that runs as deep as the many hydrocarbon-emitting wells in the northwestern part of Alberta. read more »
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Sitting across his kitchen table from the private investigator last September, "Robert" (not his real name) felt trapped. "What about all this other canola?" demanded the investigator, a former RCMP officer. read more »
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Ask an environmentalist how to ensure an ongoing healthy ecology, and he will almost certainly suggest more government regulation. Who would have thought that a more effective method has always been available within the English-speaking world? Yet this method has kept the British Isles green, even though their population density is 75 times greater than Canada's. read more »
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This book celebrates the potential of the traditional common law of nuisance as a framework for protecting the environment. Ms. Brubaker unashamedly assumes that private property owners are the best guardians for the purity of rivers and the clarity of the atmosphere. She provides striking illustrations of how those with property rights may be driven by economic common sense to protect natural resources, if they are fully informed and if they are given the freedom to act. read more »
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This is a high-spirited, well-written and informative book on the law as the protector of the environment, a book to be recommended to students in environmental studies and law and economics, a book made more interesting, challenging and useful because its prescriptions are, in my opinion, largely wrong. read more »
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Elizabeth Brubaker, Patricia Adams, Lawrence Solomon An interview, for CBC Radio's Ideas program, with Patricia Adams, Elizabeth Brubaker, and Lawrence Solomon. A discussion of the environmental, economic, and social harm wrought in the name of the public good, both in Canada and in the Third World, and of the counterbalancing protections offered by traditional property rights regimes. read more »
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Elizabeth Brubaker, Pat Adams, Lawrence Solomon |
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Property Rights Publications
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Environment Probe turned 20 this year. To our surprise and delight, we also learned this year that our foundation maintains Canada's most popular environmental web site. The reason, we suspect, is that the public doesn't like top-down environmentalism, and we have the field of community-based, market-oriented environmentalism pretty well to ourselves. read more »
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In this presentation to Property Rights and the Environment, a student colloquium held in Vancouver in July 2009, Elizabeth Brubaker explains that property rights provide incentives to conserve scarce resources, such as water and fish. read more »
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Elizabeth Brubaker spoke at the Canadian Constitution Foundation's annual law conference, Individual Freedom and the Common Good, held in Toronto, Ontario, on October 18, 2008. read more »
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A chapter from A Breath of Fresh Air: The State of Environmental Policy in Canada, a collection of essays edited by Nicholas Schneider exploring market-based environmental policy options for Canada. In this chapter, Elizabeth Brubaker discusses the roles that property rights play in protecting the environment: They provide powerful incentives for the preservation of natural resources and they are effective tools to resolve differences over resource use. Although Brubaker proposes a number of means to strengthen property rights, she advocates one principal reform: the enshrining of property rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. read more »
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"Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems." That warning, issued by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, couldn't be clearer. Farmers around the globe are polluting the air, degrading the land, and fouling the water on a "massive scale," the FOA charged. "Urgent action is required to remedy the situation." read more »
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Our water and our air are under siege, and our governments are doing precious little to protect them. Warnings have been sounded by two of Canada's most prominent environmental watchdogs. Together, they demonstrate the pressing need for a new approach to environmental protection. read more »
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A speech to the Annual Conference of the Alberta Agricultural Economics Association, held in Red Deer, Alberta, on May 4, 2006. read more »
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Danielle Smith, campaign director of the Alberta Property Rights Initiative, interviews Elizabeth Brubaker on the use of common-law property rights to protect the environment. read more »
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Several weeks ago, a resident of Langley, BC, wrote to me about a duck fattening farm that made her community miserable. The stench of manure from up to 10,000 ducks nauseated neighbours, drove customers away from local businesses, and exposed children to ridicule at school. Neighbours blamed asthma attacks and other health problems on fumes from the farm. They also feared that the farm's manure storage system threatened local water supplies. After four years of battling the farm, despite some victories along the way, many local residents remain concerned. They know they can't count on the provincial government to protect their health and well being - indeed, it has bent over backwards to promote intensive farming. And so they have turned to the courts to continue their fight to keep factory farms out of their community. read more »
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Should hog farmers be allowed to create odours so foul that they make neighbours physically ill? Should cattle farmers who follow manure-management rules be exempt from local bylaws limiting their size and density? Should vegetable farmers be allowed to send clouds of black dust across neighbouring lands, or awaken neighbours throughout the night with cannon explosions designed to scare away wildlife? How much pollution is "necessary" or "acceptable," and who should decide? read more »
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Earlier this year, several days after a lengthy interview with a writer for a weekly news magazine, I received a puzzled e-mail. "How would you describe yourself politically?" the writer asked. "Do you lean towards the left or the right?" read more »
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"Treat farming like any other industry and clean it up, inquiry urged." So read the headline of a Toronto Star article about one of our presentations to the Walkerton Inquiry. Our approach was considered newsworthy, but it shouldn't have been. After all, isn't it just common sense that we need to start cracking down on pollution from farms? read more »
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A chapter from Who Owns the Environment?, a collection of essays edited by Peter Hill and Roger Meiners exploring the theory that environmental concerns are essentially property rights issues. In this chapter, Elizabeth Brubaker reviews the ancient roots of contemporary property rights and traces their evolution in Canada. She describes the ways in which concerned citizens have used their property rights to clean up and to prevent pollution. She then chronicles successive governments' efforts to replace the common law with statutes and regulations governing the environment. Lastly, she recommends restoring strong property rights in order to return control over environmental degradation to those most directly affected by it. read more »
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Hope Babcock, Elizabeth Brubaker, David Schoenbrod, and Bruce Yandle A transcript of a roundtable discussion, hosted by the Center for Private Conservation, between Hope Babcock, Elizabeth Brubaker, David Schoenbrod, and Bruce Yandle. Explores the promise and pitfalls of applying common law remedies to contemporary environmental concerns. read more »
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In this presentation to a Student Seminar on Public Policy Issues, held in Toronto, Ontario, in November 1997, Elizabeth Brubaker argues that remote, centralized governments, driven by political considerations and insensitive to local circumstances, are not the best guardians of the public good. Environmental problems require a diversity of solutions devised by those most affected. Good information and strong property rights give people both tools and incentives to use their resources sustainably. read more »
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A chapter from A Breath of Fresh Air: The State of Environmental Policy in Canada, a collection of essays edited by Nicholas Schneider exploring market-based environmental policy options for Canada. In this chapter, Elizabeth Brubaker discusses the roles that property rights play in protecting the environment: They provide powerful incentives for the preservation of natural resources and they are effective tools to resolve differences over resource use. Although Brubaker proposes a number of means to strengthen property rights, she advocates one principal reform: the enshrining of property rights in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. read more »
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A chapter from Who Owns the Environment?, a collection of essays edited by Peter Hill and Roger Meiners exploring the theory that environmental concerns are essentially property rights issues. In this chapter, Elizabeth Brubaker reviews the ancient roots of contemporary property rights and traces their evolution in Canada. She describes the ways in which concerned citizens have used their property rights to clean up and to prevent pollution. She then chronicles successive governments' efforts to replace the common law with statutes and regulations governing the environment. Lastly, she recommends restoring strong property rights in order to return control over environmental degradation to those most directly affected by it. read more »
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Hope Babcock, Elizabeth Brubaker, David Schoenbrod, and Bruce Yandle A transcript of a roundtable discussion, hosted by the Center for Private Conservation, between Hope Babcock, Elizabeth Brubaker, David Schoenbrod, and Bruce Yandle. Explores the promise and pitfalls of applying common law remedies to contemporary environmental concerns. read more »
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This paper, published in Journal des Economistes et des Etudes Humaines, was prepared for Property Rights and Environment, an international conference organised by Centre d'Analyse Economique in June 1996. In it, Elizabeth Brubaker reviews the ways in which Canadians have used common-law property rights to protect water quality and chronicles governments' tendencies to replace the common law with regulations that make it more difficult for individuals to protect waters. read more »
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This book draws on cases from England, Canada, and the United States, showing how the common law of property has for centuries been a force for environmental protection, while contemporary statutes have allowed polluters to foul private lands and public resources alike. It argues that individuals and communities should be entrusted with the task of preserving the environment and that, with stronger property rights, they would regain the power to prevent much harmful activity. read more » |
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The controversy surrounding the K.V.P. pulp and paper mill in the 1940s dramatically illustrates both property owners’ common law rights to clean water and governments’ tendency to override these rights. Three court cases and two laws involving K.V.P. concerned the right of landowners to sue the company for polluting the river adjacent to their land. A brief explanation of “riparian rights” will clarify these cases and the subsequent events. read more »
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Danielle Smith, campaign director of the Alberta Property Rights Initiative, interviews Elizabeth Brubaker on the use of common-law property rights to protect the environment. read more »
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Elizabeth Brubaker, Patricia Adams, Lawrence Solomon An interview, for CBC Radio's Ideas program, with Patricia Adams, Elizabeth Brubaker, and Lawrence Solomon. A discussion of the environmental, economic, and social harm wrought in the name of the public good, both in Canada and in the Third World, and of the counterbalancing protections offered by traditional property rights regimes. read more »
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Elizabeth Brubaker, Pat Adams, Lawrence Solomon |
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Toronto City Council could not have thought up a surer way to destroy the urban forest than to pass a bylaw forbidding property owners to sell trees without the city’s permission.
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An interview, for CBC Radio's Ideas program, with Lawrence Solomon about the ways in which competition, privatization, property rights, and other market mechanisms can work to preserve the environment. read more »
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In this presentation to Property Rights and the Environment, a student colloquium held in Vancouver in July 2009, Elizabeth Brubaker explains that property rights provide incentives to conserve scarce resources, such as water and fish. read more »
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Elizabeth Brubaker spoke at the Canadian Constitution Foundation's annual law conference, Individual Freedom and the Common Good, held in Toronto, Ontario, on October 18, 2008. read more »
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A speech to the Annual Conference of the Alberta Agricultural Economics Association, held in Red Deer, Alberta, on May 4, 2006. read more »
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In this presentation to a Student Seminar on Public Policy Issues, held in Toronto, Ontario, in November 1997, Elizabeth Brubaker argues that remote, centralized governments, driven by political considerations and insensitive to local circumstances, are not the best guardians of the public good. Environmental problems require a diversity of solutions devised by those most affected. Good information and strong property rights give people both tools and incentives to use their resources sustainably. read more »
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A presentation to the Fraser Institute Student Seminar on Public Policy Issues, in Toronto, Ontario, on November 4, 1995.
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In this presentation to a Student Seminar on Public Policy Issues in 1994, Elizabeth Brubaker describes the ways in which individuals and businesses use property rights to protect the environment and how, when governments take away property rights, the environment suffers. read more »
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Environment Probe turned 20 this year. To our surprise and delight, we also learned this year that our foundation maintains Canada's most popular environmental web site. The reason, we suspect, is that the public doesn't like top-down environmentalism, and we have the field of community-based, market-oriented environmentalism pretty well to ourselves. read more »
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"Livestock are one of the most significant contributors to today's most serious environmental problems." That warning, issued by the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations, couldn't be clearer. Farmers around the globe are polluting the air, degrading the land, and fouling the water on a "massive scale," the FOA charged. "Urgent action is required to remedy the situation." read more »
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Our water and our air are under siege, and our governments are doing precious little to protect them. Warnings have been sounded by two of Canada's most prominent environmental watchdogs. Together, they demonstrate the pressing need for a new approach to environmental protection. read more »
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Several weeks ago, a resident of Langley, BC, wrote to me about a duck fattening farm that made her community miserable. The stench of manure from up to 10,000 ducks nauseated neighbours, drove customers away from local businesses, and exposed children to ridicule at school. Neighbours blamed asthma attacks and other health problems on fumes from the farm. They also feared that the farm's manure storage system threatened local water supplies. After four years of battling the farm, despite some victories along the way, many local residents remain concerned. They know they can't count on the provincial government to protect their health and well being - indeed, it has bent over backwards to promote intensive farming. And so they have turned to the courts to continue their fight to keep factory farms out of their community. read more »
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Should hog farmers be allowed to create odours so foul that they make neighbours physically ill? Should cattle farmers who follow manure-management rules be exempt from local bylaws limiting their size and density? Should vegetable farmers be allowed to send clouds of black dust across neighbouring lands, or awaken neighbours throughout the night with cannon explosions designed to scare away wildlife? How much pollution is "necessary" or "acceptable," and who should decide? read more »
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Earlier this year, several days after a lengthy interview with a writer for a weekly news magazine, I received a puzzled e-mail. "How would you describe yourself politically?" the writer asked. "Do you lean towards the left or the right?" read more »
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"Treat farming like any other industry and clean it up, inquiry urged." So read the headline of a Toronto Star article about one of our presentations to the Walkerton Inquiry. Our approach was considered newsworthy, but it shouldn't have been. After all, isn't it just common sense that we need to start cracking down on pollution from farms? read more »
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Before world leaders gathered in Halifax for June's G-7 summit, organizers fretted over an embarrassing problem: one of the city's sewage pipes emptied just outside the meeting site, spewing raw sewage into the otherwise scenic harbour. Worried that foreign dignitaries and journalists would smell sewage and spot floating condoms, tampon applicators and toilet paper, politicians devised a plan. Their proposal? To extend a submerged pipe into the harbour, improving the view and sparing the visitors' noses. The federal government ended up scrapping the plan, but not because merely hiding the sewage wouldn't solve the problem. On the contrary, it simply deemed the $1 million project too expensive. read more »
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Over a century ago, in 1885, Antoine Ratté filed a lawsuit against several of Canada's most notorious polluters. That suit and the government's reaction to it established a shameful pattern that governs pollution across Canada to this day. read more »
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Environmental assessments and the public hearings that should scrutinize them were intended to empower the public to bring forward its concerns over projects that threatened their communities. Regrettably, environmental assessments—which are generally produced by promoters to justify their projects—often became cosy arrangements in which industry and government negotiated deals behind the public's back, and circumvented public hearings. The result of those closed door arrangements were fiascos such as the Darlington nuclear power plant, which was never needed and which now threatens Ontario Hydro with bankruptcy, and the subsidized clear-cutting of old growth forests, which simultaneously ravaged our heritage and our economy. read more »
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In 1949, the Supreme Court of Canada ordered a pulp and paper company in Espanola, Ontario, to stop polluting downstream waters, ruling that the property rights of the affected fishermen, farmers, and tourist operators must be respected. The Ontario government immediately passed new legislation allowing the pulp mill to continue releasing chemicals. For good measure, the government—anticipating that the court might rule against the company—had several months earlier also changed the Lakes and Rivers Improvement Act to encourage courts to allow pulp mill pollution. read more »
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TabGroup4Atlantic Institute for Market Studies Atlas Economic Research Foundation's Links to Market-Oriented Think Tanks Center for Private Conservation Competitive Enterprise Institute -
International Association for the Study of Common Property International Conference Series: Property Rights, Economics, and the Environment Ontario Property and Environmental Rights Alliance PERC: the Center for Free Market Environmentalism
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